cultural explosion
the humara karachi festival saw what can effectively be called north nazimabad’s boat basin formally decorated as a food street last night. probably because it was a saturday, there were loads of people gorging themselves on some of the better known and some of the lesser known eateries’ product. what was nice to see was a small book stall set up as part of the whole food street thing – and the people were buying. that should be an indication to whoever is supposed to monitor these things that the people of karachi need lighter-on-the-pocket options to access decent reading material. the union council libraries help but they’re a far cry from being enough.
alliance francaise also hosted tina sani under the aegis of sampurna, as mansoor mentioned earlier. it was a small party, smaller than i’d expected at least, not more than 60 people, but as any tina sani event is bound to be – it was awesome. her renditions of faiz ahmed faiz remind you of what ghazal singing is all supposed to be about.
so, all in all, karachi had a pretty rich cultural night yesterday what with all these events and the shadi season in full swing. may the feeling of well being and all round glad-to-be-in-karachi attitude continue throughout the upcoming higher tension months of muharram and safar and the rest of the year.
Cool! got any pics xil??
and amen 2 last para :-D
unfortunately not. having been mugged five times over the past three years has made me develop a natural aversion to using a decent camera phone :)
Xill, there were probably 100 odd people and not 60 as you have mentioned. At one time, there were 18-20 people sitting on the gao-takiya and the rest on chairs.
……and yes, it was a truly, wonderful experience to hear the Great Tina Sani live in person.
well arsalan i may be wrong. but even a hundred isn’t much :)
for the record, the daily times put the figure at 40 or something.
ooooh such a long time but i still remember Faiz’s piece *Bool kay lab Azad hain teray* sung by Tina.On the other note, its really nice to hear about such happenings in karachi.Way to go karachi and nice effort to capture these happenings from KMB.
Dee.
Xill, you are correct in saying that even 100 isn’t much. But considering the circumstances – such as the word of mouth promotion and the availability of venue and its size – I would say that even at a hundred, it was a good audience.
And considering the fact that most of the people were Ghazal enthusiasts, which made it a more, wonderful evening.
And yes, I would like to know that who was it from DT, who wrote that there were 40 people.
xil: i totally sympathize with you man.
hey its happened to you too mansoor :)
arsalan, my man, i’m sure you got the right figure, and yes, evcn a hundred people make a good audience given the circumstances and yes, it was a wonderful evening and yes, if you like, i’ll concede the sky is actually a bright shade of flouroscent pink.
what’s the big deal for pete’s sake? i thought it was sixty, you counted a hundred and the times reporter put it at forty, a certain maliha rehman since you’re so interested. who cares? we all agreed it was a great performance.
How does one get tickets to such an event or is it by invitation only. I would’ve loved to attend !!
Xill, a wrong is a wrong is a wrong.
Two wrongs doesn’t make a right and at least, I am happy to note that we do agree that it was a wonderful performance…….cheers.
why thank you. that was very gracious of you arsalaan.
Xill, my friend, you are most welcome.